:kowell I am glad I entertained you. Still, considering how Branko took freediving world by the horns, finding sponsors or even just one "commited" manager is only a matter of time
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Branko Petrovic 9:20 STA
- Thread starterbalanse
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Thread Status: Hello
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:kowell I am glad I entertained you. Still, considering how Branko took freediving world by the horns, finding sponsors or even just one "commited" manager is only a matter of time
Why do you think that? Of course it's possible, but to say that finding substantial sponsorship is just a matter of time, or that he "just has to ask" is a bit ridiculous. I don't think you appreciate how tough it usually is for freedivers. Given the low visibility of the sport, they're essentially asking for charity most of the time rather than commanding any kind of commercial leverage.
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I really don't know what I am talking about, what I said was based on my experience of finding sponsors in other sports, where there are substantial sums needed for simple tasks. What Branko's immediate needs are, looked somewhat piece of cake to untrained eye of a stranger (thats me). Sorry
Freediving at a high level really comes to down to some sort of problem of life balance. Everyone is faced with the same problems:
- You want to train all day every day
- You cannot because you don't have money to do that
- So you work, which takes away time from the training
- You work, now you have money to compete, but no time to train
- You try to eliminate all leisure activities, leaving nothing but working and training
- The person who can suffer through the longest spell without leisure, doing only working and training, makes big progress, but invariably this person suffers a psychological or physical 'crash' every 2 or 3 years and spends the better part of a year partying or vegetating or recovering from illness induced by overwork
There are various alternate methods. People like Davide Carrera and Branko Petrovic spearfish for a living 6 months of the year, which is incredible training and results in huge performances. But this produces only enough money to pay bare expenses, not enough money to travel and compete.
Martin Stepanek started his own coaching company, but since he started it he has had extremely limited time to train and his frequency of records and competitions has drastically diminished.
Herbert does the work & train approach but has already burnt out several times.
Will Trubridge has so far managed the most effective model, starting with the ideal low cost location to train deep diving, and getting people to come to him for courses for half the year, then traveling around Europe to teach the other half. This has resulted in him doing more deep dives than all the other deep divers combined.
My concept was to start my own business and make enough money so I could basically just retire, and thereafter train every day without ever worrying about money. Seven years later I'm still chasing that, after multiple health collapses and episodes with depression.
So the struggle continues for everyone....
- You want to train all day every day
- You cannot because you don't have money to do that
- So you work, which takes away time from the training
- You work, now you have money to compete, but no time to train
- You try to eliminate all leisure activities, leaving nothing but working and training
- The person who can suffer through the longest spell without leisure, doing only working and training, makes big progress, but invariably this person suffers a psychological or physical 'crash' every 2 or 3 years and spends the better part of a year partying or vegetating or recovering from illness induced by overwork
There are various alternate methods. People like Davide Carrera and Branko Petrovic spearfish for a living 6 months of the year, which is incredible training and results in huge performances. But this produces only enough money to pay bare expenses, not enough money to travel and compete.
Martin Stepanek started his own coaching company, but since he started it he has had extremely limited time to train and his frequency of records and competitions has drastically diminished.
Herbert does the work & train approach but has already burnt out several times.
Will Trubridge has so far managed the most effective model, starting with the ideal low cost location to train deep diving, and getting people to come to him for courses for half the year, then traveling around Europe to teach the other half. This has resulted in him doing more deep dives than all the other deep divers combined.
My concept was to start my own business and make enough money so I could basically just retire, and thereafter train every day without ever worrying about money. Seven years later I'm still chasing that, after multiple health collapses and episodes with depression.
So the struggle continues for everyone....
Hahaha haha ha...... sigh.....
Strangely reassuring to know it's not just me who's a) not in Kalamata, b) sitting at their desk at work reading DeeperBlue, c) scratching to get an hour a month training, and d) saving for the next freedive trip/still paying off the last freedive trip.
Strangely reassuring to know it's not just me who's a) not in Kalamata, b) sitting at their desk at work reading DeeperBlue, c) scratching to get an hour a month training, and d) saving for the next freedive trip/still paying off the last freedive trip.
Branko has now a blog at branko.freediver@blogspot.com
also we are in the process of making a website for him...
also we are in the process of making a website for him...
yes the link doesn't open with mine sorry
Yes indeed i will examine him when he comes to switzerland
Yes indeed i will examine him when he comes to switzerland
I would like to add that Branko is again spearfishing this year till the end of this month but that I discussed with him to increase his surface intervalls and limit his dive number. He is doing 150 dives instead of 300, this is because of DCS precausions and because he wants to be more carefull with his health as he is focusing on professional freediving and not spearfishing that much. Also he doen't hunt to deep and only does easy 30 m dives with bottom time of max 3 min. As requested we will post some dive profiles when me and Branko get the time. I will be in Egypt from the 22.5 till the 2.6, really looking forward to seeing my friends there. I will train at Only one Apnea center and also spent some days in Dahab. I hope to visit Branko in Serbia during late july or june.
Sorry guys my info was not very precise i will ask him later and then branko can post on his blog a typical day of spearfishing profil. As i said he decreased bottom time, depth and reps, also increasing surface time. Before he was doing 8 hours and 2-2.5 hours of surface time, which branko needed to increase because of safety. He is however not the only professal spero with such a profile.
In the future I will be more precise with my posts.
I would never say yes to diving like branko did before because that is just too dangerous. I think that he is lucky to be alive and he knows that, thats why I help him as well with many others so he doesn't need to do this kind of diving again to earn enough money.
He is too good at spearfishing for his own good and such talent should not be wasted with (dangerous) spearfishing.
But as he is from serbia and not from switzerland like me starting a career in freediving is difficult and needs patience. I think however that when Branko can overcome these intitial challenges we can expect a lot of him.
From a managing standpont it's harder than I thought, especially in the martketing and sponsoring field where Branko needs to improve most in order to have a good career. I think he is a very nice guy and deserves his place among the elite freedivers, the ability is there no question about it. In my eyes it's a long way still to the top though, especially considering that Branko needs to learn the technique with Monofin and No fins perfectly first. Also since he had no prior access to deep (80 +) nice water and a shitty boat real depth training has not been done in his career.
I hope Branko can make a precise Blog about his spearfishing and what he used to do before and what he does now in the water to answer your questions regarding his safety. I think that after 31.5 he will be basically done spearing for the year anyway so no need to worry about his health5
I would never say yes to diving like branko did before because that is just too dangerous. I think that he is lucky to be alive and he knows that, thats why I help him as well with many others so he doesn't need to do this kind of diving again to earn enough money.
He is too good at spearfishing for his own good and such talent should not be wasted with (dangerous) spearfishing.
But as he is from serbia and not from switzerland like me starting a career in freediving is difficult and needs patience. I think however that when Branko can overcome these intitial challenges we can expect a lot of him.
From a managing standpont it's harder than I thought, especially in the martketing and sponsoring field where Branko needs to improve most in order to have a good career. I think he is a very nice guy and deserves his place among the elite freedivers, the ability is there no question about it. In my eyes it's a long way still to the top though, especially considering that Branko needs to learn the technique with Monofin and No fins perfectly first. Also since he had no prior access to deep (80 +) nice water and a shitty boat real depth training has not been done in his career.
I hope Branko can make a precise Blog about his spearfishing and what he used to do before and what he does now in the water to answer your questions regarding his safety. I think that after 31.5 he will be basically done spearing for the year anyway so no need to worry about his health5
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Yes as a futur doc i will do some research with him to increase our knowedge. But as i work now a lot and won't meet him soon i can't tell you now. I will do a study on deep diving with electro encephalo gramm and a functional mri of brankos static among others also a holter ecg deep dive is planned but this has to wait so please be patient. I have a lot of work ( internships ) this year and next year i take the american and swiss doctor final exam so i need to prioritise.
I'm sure i meet you at worlds though.
I'm sure i meet you at worlds though.